Indoor Football Weekly #16

Credit: Our Sports Central

We're through five weeks of indoor football now and coming up on week six. This week we have the most games played so far this year. 15 games, 5 in the IFL, 4 in the NAL, and 6 in the CIF, make up this weeks games.

Last week we saw what 2004 offered us, this week our trip through the history brings us into 2005. With 2005 saw the most leagues playing up to this point with four. Both the APFL and NIFL would return from 2004 while the Intense Football League would take 2005 off as it would be on a one year hiatus. Two new leagues we're also formed, United Indoor Football a league based mostly in the Midwest, along with the Atlantic Indoor Football League, a league based in the Eastern US formed by five expansion teams and one former NIFL club (Johnstown formerly Greeneville in the NIFL) for it's inaugural six teams.
The APFL who had four clubs in 2004 lost the Texas Thunder, who only lasted one season, but did add the Kansas Storm, Nebraska Bears, and Wichita Aviators too compete with six teams in 2005. The NIFL had 26 teams in 2004 lost 10 clubs (mostly to the new UIF and one to the new AIFL) to new leagues, 7 teams (Atlantic City, Colorado, Houma, Lake Charles, Tri-City, Utah, and Wichita Falls) that folded. That meant that only 9 teams returned to the league for the 2005 season, 13 new teams were added to give a total of 24 teams for 2005. The newly formed Atlantic Indoor Football League had six teams, with 5 expansion teams and from the NIFL the RiverHawks who moved from Greenville, SC to Johnstown, PA. In United Indoor Football it was made up EXCLUSIVELY of existing franchises. 9 of the 11 moved from the NIFL while Peoria (formerly the Pirates now the Rough Riders) and Tennessee Valley (formerly the Vipers now the Raptors) moved from arenafootball2.
The APFL's third season would see the Kansas Koyotes take on the Iowa Blackhawks, who had beat Wichita in the Semi-Final, for the APFL Championship. The Koyotes would reign supreme again barely edging out Iowa 26-24 at the Landon Arena to go 9-0 for a third straight season. While in the AIFL the playoffs looked a little different for a six team league as all six teams would qualify for the playoffs. After 2 rounds of playoffs the number one and two seeds, Richmond and Erie would play for the 2005 AIFL Championship. The Bandits would come out on top with a 56-30 road win over the Erie Freeze. The National Indoor Football League, even with all it's turmoil, saw this biggest amount of playoff teams at 16, just like the year before. With Indoor Bowl V being played at Three Rivers Coliseum in Kennewick, WA. With a sellout crowd seeing the expansion Fever taking on the Rome (GA) Renegades, Tri-Cities took the Championship 47-31. In the first year United Indoor Football 8 teams (of the leagues 11) would go into it's inaugural playoffs. UIF United Bowl I would be held at the Gateway Arena at Tyson Event Center in Sioux City, IA. The hometown Bandits would fall in a tough game 40-38 to their arch rival, the Sioux Falls Storm. United Bowl I was the Storm's first ever league Championship and set off the pace for the team that would win 10 titles in 12 seasons.

Credit: Indoor Football League

With the IFL's Week 5 in the books it was well not what we had expected at all. Kicking off the week was Colorado hosting Spokane. The Empire would put the Crush down in an avalanche by a score of 70-37. With no games on Saturday the next one was a Sunday matinee in Cedar Rapids, between the Titans and Blizzard. After a very close game and leading the entire time, the Titans would drop the game in the final minute to the Blizzard 34-28. To wrap up the IFL was a Monday Night clash between the Sioux Falls Storm and Iowa Barnstormers in our IFL Game of the Week. The game would be exactly the opposite of what was expected. Iowa made mistakes, everything from penalties to turnovers to bad snaps, and everything else you can think of all night long. The Storm would take those and use them to the fullest extent and absolutely massacre Iowa 70-13.
Week 6 has all ten teams playing once again this weekend. The weeks kicks off on Friday at 9PM (CT) with Spokane vs Salt Lake. It's followed up on Saturday with two games at 7:05PM (CT) with Wichita Falls visiting Sioux Falls and the Nebraska Danger hosting the Colorado Crush. Sunday finishes the week with two games, Iowa hosts Cedar Rapids in the Barnstormers home opener at 3:05PM (CT). While the Arizona Rattlers travel to Green Bay to take on the Blizzard also at 3:05PM (CT) from the Resch Center. As always the games are LIVE and FREE on YouTube.

Credit: Champions Indoor Football

In the CIF, Week 4 saw all 14 teams play 7 games for the first time this season. The opening game saw the Sioux City Bandits defeat the Bismarck Bucks 30-16 with the only game on Friday night. Saturday saw the other six games played. The defending league champion Wichita Force dropped their second game of the season 40-38 on the road against the Duke City Gladiators. Next up was another matchup between expansion teams as Kansas City traveled to Muskegon, MI. The Phantoms just edged out the Ironmen 50-47 to win their first game in franchise history, the Ironmen, who are last year's AIF Runner-Up, is still winless in the CIF. For the third straight week we had an all-Kansas showdown as Salina hosted Dodge City. The Law would edge the Liberty 34-32 putting Dodge City to 3-0 and Salina to 0-3. The Omaha Beef knocked off the Bloomington Edge in another close on 55-50. While in Amarillo the Venom hosted the Marshals and would take that game at home 59-32. The final game was our CIF Game of the Week between the Texas Revolution and CenTex Cavalry. And while yes it was the beatdown you expected with the Revs taking down CenTex 69-21, it featured the return of one of the sports greatest, Chris Dixon, who made his debut at Revs QB. Dixon looked as sharp as ever in that game.
The CIF's Week 5 will have six games, kicking off on Thursday when the Texas Revolution host the Dallas Marshals at 7PM (CT). Saturday features the other five games this week starting with yet another all-Kansas clash when Salina heads to Dodge City to play the Law at 6:30PM (CT). At 7PM (CT) Wichita will host Amarillo, Duke City hosts CenTex, the Bismarck Bucks travel to Bloomington to face the Edge, and Kansas City heads north to take on the Bandits in Sioux City. All games can be viewed of course on Eversport.

Credit: National Arena League

The National Arena League finally kicked off it's inaugural season this past weekend and it opened up with the NAL Game of the Week on Friday at 6PM. "The Jungle" the Columbus Civic Center with 2,456 fans inside the building the hometown, and two time consecutive (2015 PIFL and 2016 AIF) Champion, Lions hosted the former AFL club the Jacksonville Sharks. The game would NOT start very pretty and saw the Sharks storm out to an early lead and by halftime the game was 40-20. With a 20 point lead in hand the Sharks cruised out to a 56-41 victory to win the inaugural game in NAL history. With one game being played each night over the weekend Saturday saw the Georgia Firebirds host the High Country Grizzlies from the Albany Civic Center in Albany, GA. High Country would take this game by a score of 62-29 beating a team that just was terrible in the AIF in 2016. Sunday saw the Atlanta based Wolfpack travel up to the PPL Center in Allentown, PA to play the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks. Lehigh Valley would crush the Wolfpack with a final of 66-25. The final game of the week, which wasn't even shown live like promised by the NAL, was Monterrey hosting Corpus Christi. The Steel we're the much better team and held a shutout much of the night winning 55-12 over the Rage.
Now something that was very interesting is during the Lehigh Valley-"Dayton" game the Steelhawks owner stated that there would be four expansion teams coming in for the 2018 season. A league that hadn't even completed it's first week of play touting expansion teams. Plus add the fact that "Dayton" is based out of Atlanta and is not really known what will happen to them after this year. The NAL is sounder more and more like the winner that the AIF was. Well on Monday the NAL announced the first of the expansion teams for 2018, the Jersey Flight. This team will be based out of Trenton, NJ Sun National Bank Center. This market is one of the most well known for being terrible for all sports, multiple indoor football, hockey, and basketball teams have failed just inside that building.
For Week 2 of the NAL's first season the games start on Saturday with two being played at 6PM (CT). Jacksonville will host Georgia in the Sharks 2017 home opener. The other game on Saturday has High Country hosting Lehigh Valley in the Grizzlies first ever home game. Sunday at 7PM (CT) has the Corpus Christi Rage facing the Columbus Lions. This will be the Rage's first ever game at the American Bank Center as they replace the former Corpus Christi Fury who played there from 2004-06 and 2010-16. The final game of the week is on Monday night at 9PM (CT) when Monterrey hosts the Wolfpack. And per the NAL, and just like the IFL, all games are LIVE and FREE on YouTube.

Now that all three leagues are playing as of last week there will be three (one from each league) Games of the Week until the playoffs start. This weekend all three will be played on Saturday night and they start with the NAL Game of the Week. This week sees the High Country Grizzlies (1-0) host the Lehigh Valley Steelahwks (1-0). This will be the Grizzlies first ever home game in franchise history as they kickoff at 6PM (CT) from the George M. Holmes Convocation Center in Boone, NC. High Country vs Lehigh Valley is LIVE and FREE on YouTube. Next up is the CIF Game of the Week is a rematch from last years Champions Bowl II in the same building, the INTRUST Bank Arena as the Wichita Force (1-2) host the Amarillo Venom (2-0) in a South Division clash at 7PM (CT). The CIF Game of the Week is available of course on Eversport. And finally now the IFL Game of the Week, this has got to be the most exciting of all the games this week. A battle of the United Conference unbeatens is the game. At 7PM (CT) the Sioux Falls Storm (4-0) with the leagues toughest defense takes on the Wichita Falls Nighthawks (4-0) with the leagues highest scoring offense. If you only can watch one game the IFL Game of the Week is definitely the one to go towards.

Indoor Football Weekly #15

Credit: Topeka Capital-Journal

Week Five on Indoor Football is coming up this week. A full month after the Indoor Football League and the sport kicked off the 2017 season, all leagues finally enter the regular season. Yes that's right the last league to start, the National Arena League kicks off this week!

Last week we covered 2003, this week we step into our time machine going back to 2004. This would be the first season in the history of the sport that more than two leagues we're active in the same year. Both the APFL and NIFL would return from 2003, they would be joined by the Texas-based Intense Football League. The APFL after having 3 clubs in 2003 would go to four for the 2004 season as the Iowa Blackhawks and Texas Thunder we're added after the St. Joseph Explorers folded. The NIFL would see the league jump to 25 teams and the Intense Football League would start off it's existence with six brand new teams all based in Texas. In the American Professional Football League with the Koyotes looking to repeat as Champions they would face the Missouri Minutemen once again for the title. This time it was an even worse beatdown as Kansas would win 64-6 over Missouri to finish the season 9-0 once again. The Intense Football League would see four of it's six teams qualify for the playoffs after playing a 16 game regular season. Intense Bowl I would see the Amarillo Dusters take down the Lubbock Lone Stars 62-47 and win an Indoor Football championship before heading off to arenafootball2 for 2005. Finally after another marathon 14 game season in the NIFL, which saw four teams fail to complete the entire season, 12 of it's teams would make the playoffs. Indoor Bowl IV would be the first time that Sioux Falls would make a league championship, however they dropped the game and NIFL Championship 59-38 to the Lexington Horsemen. As of 2017 only Amarillo (now the Venom in the CIF), Omaha, Sioux City, and Sioux Falls still exist.

Credit: Indoor Football League

The IFL's Week 4, for the first time all season had all 10 teams play in one weekend. Saturday saw three of the five games being played on that night alone. Wichita Falls would move to 4-0 on the season with a 42-23 road win over Cedar Rapids. Sioux Falls for the second time this season barely squeaked away with a last minute 42-28 road win over Nebraska. And in the final game Arizona hosted the Colorado Crush, and in blowout fashion won their first IFL game 71-27. Sunday afternoon saw our IFL Game of the Week played for Week 4, the Iowa Barnstormers traveled to Green Bay. At the Resch Center on Sunday afternoon Iowa took down the Blizzard 49-30 to move up to 2-1 on the season. And on Monday night a closer than expected game was seen when Spokane edged out Salt Lake 41-35.
Now on to the IFL POWER RANKINGS by Banana Cat, no positions have changed since last week so at #1 is Sioux Falls Storm (3-0), #2 Wichita Falls Nighthawks (4-0), #3 Spokane Empire (2-1), #4 Iowa Barnstormers (2-1). In the bottom six: 5) Arizona, 6) Nebraska, 7) Green Bay, 8) Salt Lake, 9) Colorado, 10) Cedar Rapids.
For Week 5 we have 6 teams playing 3 games. On Friday night Spokane heads to Colorado to take on the Crush at 8PM CT. With no games on Saturday the next matchup sees Green Bay (1-2) head to Cedar Rapids (0-3) at 3:05 PM CT. Finally it wraps up again with the IFL version of Monday Night Football when Sioux Falls (3-0) hosts Iowa (2-1) at 6:00 PM. And of course all the games are LIVE and FREE on YouTube!

Credit: Champions Indoor Football

In the CIF's Week 3 we got treated to plenty of games and some GREAT football from Champions Indoor Football! It opened on Friday with the only game of the night (from any league) when Omaha crushed Salina 76-44 at the Ralston Arena. The busiest day was definitely Saturday with three games, starting with Bismarck and West Michigan. In a very close game between two of the four expansion teams Bismarck took the game 40-33. Up next was the CIF Game of the Week for Week 3 between Wichita and Dodge City. In a back and forth game that would take until the very end to be decided the Law beat the Force 42-39! And wrapping up Saturday Amarillo traveled to Albuquerque taking on the Duke City Gladiators. Duke City, who was wearing uniforms honoring the old AAA PCL Albuquerque Dukes, lost in overtime on a 2 point conversion 70-69 to Amarillo. Wrapping up the week was the CIF's version of Monday Night Football when Bloomington headed to the Silverstein Eye Care Centers Arena to play the Kansas City Phantoms. The expansion Phantoms managed to hold their own against Bloomington, but fell 43-37 to the Edge.
Now for our CIF POWER RANKINGS thanks to Banana Cat, staying at the #1 spot (thanks to signing legendary IFL QB Chris Dixon) is the Texas Revolution, Sioux City has moved up one spot to #2, Bloomington has also moved up one spot to #3, and Amarillo has moved up one spot and into the top 4. The next 10 are: 5) Dodge City (up one spot), 6) Wichita (down 4 spots), 7) Omaha (up one spot), 8) Kansas City (up one spot), 9) Duke City (down two spots). The bottom five, 10) Bismarck, 11) Dallas, 12) Salina, 13) CenTex, and 14) West Michigan, have all stayed the same.
Jumping now to Week 4 we finally see all 14 teams play this week. Friday again sees just one game when Sioux City heads to Bismarck at 7PM. Saturday sees a whopping six games and that all starts at 5PM CT when Wichita plays on the road at Duke City, 6PM will see another all expansion game as Kansas City will travel to Muskegon, MI to play West Michigan. Yet another all Kansas showdown for Dodge City as the Law play in Salina at 6:30 PM CT. At 7PM CT alone, Omaha at Bloomington, Texas Revs (and QB Chris Dixon) play their first game of 2017 against CenTex, and last but not least Dallas will play the Venom in Amarillo. All games are viewable on Eversport.

Credit: National Arena League

And now the last league to kickoff it's 2017, and in this case inaugural campaign, the National Arena League opens play this weekend. Before we preview the games let's take a look at our NAL POWER RANKINGS by Banana Cat. at the top spot is the former AFL club, the Jacksonville Sharks, at #2 is the 2015 PIFL and 2016 AIF Champion Columbus Lions, #3 is the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks, and at #4 is the Monterrey Steel who have just signed former NFL'er Jacoby Jones. In the bottom four is 5) High Country Grizzlies, 6) Corpus Christi Rage, 7) Georgia Firebirds, and 8) the Atlanta based Wolfpack saying their from Dayton. Now for anyone who is new to the NAL or to Indoor Football Weekly, let's clear up the Atlanta/Dayton Wolfpack. Dayton had been announced as an expansion club for the then named Arena Development League, the ADL would change it's name to the NAL when Jacksonville joined the league. Nothing had ever been announced of an official lease for Dayton to play in the Nutter Center, the only Dayton area arena left that could host indoor football. Just about one month ago the Dayton Wolfpack we're folded by the National Arena League and replaced by an Atlanta based travel only team playing under the Dayton Wolfpack name. This had the effect of the league going from each team playing 12 games to Dayton playing 7 and other teams playing between 10 and 12 games.
Now that the Atlanta/Dayton fiasco is out of the way let's go to the games. Now another drawback to the NAL (other than it picking up where the AIF led off) is that each team controls their own streaming, not the league like the CIF and IFL. *UPDATE* As of around 6PM (CT) on 3/15/17 the National Arena League announced that they would partner with YouTube for the 2017 season. All games with the exception of Lions home games will be streamed on YouTube, Lions home games will be streamed via CTV Beam online at a price of $9.99 per home game or $49.99 for the season. The NAL opens play with by far it's biggest game of the year on Friday at 6PM CT when the Columbus Lions host the Jacksonville Sharks. Saturday has two more games played as the High Country Grizzlies travel to Albany, GA to play the Georgia Firebirds and the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks host Atlanta (playing as the Dayton Wolfpack). The NAL also caps off the week with it's version of Monday Night Football when the Monterrey Steel host the Corpus Christi Rage.

For the first time this season all three leagues have a Game of the Week. Kicking off our games this week is the Friday Night Showdown in the National Arena League between the Jacksonville Sharks and Columbus Lions. This game is being played at 6PM CT at "The Jungle" the Columbus Civic Center, it's the first ever meeting between these teams and first game in NAL history. The Sharks first non-AFL game against a two time defending champion team, in a new league with new rules. You can watch the Lions vs Sharks online on CTV Beam. The CIF Game of the Week will be on Saturday night at 7PM when Chris Dixon comes back for the first time in two seasons to lead the Texas Revolution against the CenTex Cavalry at the Bell County Expo Center in Belton, TX. The CIF game of course will be on Eversport. And finally we end with the IFL Game of the Week, a Monday Night Showdown between the Sioux Falls Storm and the Iowa Barnstormers. Sioux Falls has never lost inside the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center and Iowa has never beaten the Storm, however the Storm do NOT look like an unbeatable goliath and have barely edged out two of three wins. On the opposite side the Barnstormers look to have their best team since their 2010 af2 playoff appearance. Sioux Falls vs Iowa kicks off at 6PM CT and can be seen LIVE and FREE on YouTube. And as always if you want to try the challenge you can pick the games here.

Indoor Football Weekly #12: On the Hunt

Credit: Rapid City Journal

Yes that was an exciting week wasn't it everyone? Well things are about to get even crazier, the Indoor Football League enters it's Second Week, Champions Indoor Football enters Week One, and there is even some news on the National Arena League front!! Hold on to your pants for this roller coaster that's about to take off.

As we open the history books this week we step into the magical year known as 2001. Bush was in the White House with Cheney running the show, we had Christina Aguilera and Alicia Keys on the Billboard and a new football league! Yes even though the (original) Indoor Football League was doing well it closed, but that's because the Orlando Predators purchased it since it was a competitor to the af2. In it's place we had the new National Indoor Football League consisting of 18 clubs in 4 divisions and would continue the IFL's tradition of playing 14 games. On the other hand limping to the finish was the IPFL down to just 5 clubs. The NIFL (obviously) was the much stronger of the two leagues seeing 8 teams make the playoffs, including the Sioux Falls Storm's first every playoff appearance. NIFL Indoor Bowl I would see the 2000 IPFL Champion Mississippi Fire Dogs take down Wyoming Cavalry 55-12 at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. On the other hand the IPFL was nowhere near as fortunate, seeing only 4 of the 5 clubs survive the entire year. The visiting Tennessee ThunderCats would beat the Omaha Beef 47-38 in "The Slaughterhouse" to win the 2001 and final IPFL Championship as the league would die after the season. Yes just four years into the history of this sport and three leagues have already died.

And we're off! To Week 2 in the Indoor Football League, Week 1 saw the IFL play four games to open up the season. On Thursday night saw the Nebraska Danger cream Project Fanchise's Salt Lake Screaming Eagles 78-47. The video feed was good, but the fans SUCKED at calling plays. Friday night brought us two games of very opposite caliber. The earlier (finishing) of the night saw Green Bay put a beat down on Cedar Rapids 46-13. The later (finishing) game saw the Arizona Rattlers take on the Sioux Falls Storm (Coverage below in the Game of the Week Section). And on Saturday night Iowa traveled to Wichita Falls but fell to the Nighthawks 68-53. Now for the updated POWER RANKINGS by Banana Cat. In the top four we have Sioux Falls at #1, Arizona has moved up to #2, Spokane has dropped to #3 in their bye week, and in fourth is Wichita Falls. The rest of the league is as followed 5) Green Bay Blizzard, 6) Nebraska Danger 7) Iowa Barnstormers 8) Salt Lake Screaming Eagles, 9) Colorado Crush 10) Cedar Rapids Titans. Week number 2 in the IFL starts on Thursday night, the 23rd when Green Bay visits Spokane at 9PM CT. On Saturday the 25th two games get played at 7:05 CT as Sioux Falls travels to Cedar Rapids and Wichita Falls visits the Nebraska Danger. To cap off the weekend on Sunday the 26th at 4:00 CT when Salt Lake heads to Colorado to play the Crush. Then at 5:00 CT two former AFL clubs face off when Iowa heads to Phoenix for a game with the Arizona Rattlers. All IFL games are available FREE on YouTube.

CIF oh CIF, yes Champions Indoor Football starts this weekend officially! But lest we not forget last weekend? What is that? You didn't know their was exhibition games!? Well there was and they were not pretty. Sioux City would crush the First City Cavalry 80-0 at the Gateway Arena. Further south the Dallas Marshals would KO the Arlington Longhorns 62-6 at the Mesquite Arena. This weekend sees some more exhibition games, Friday sees the Texas Revolution host the Texas Stealth. Saturday will see the Duke City Gladiators host the First Responders along with Amarillo hosting the LEXFA Mexico City All-Stars. Then Sunday evening the Bloomington Edge will host the Tri-Town Titans. In games that will actually count towards the standings the Sioux City Bandits the Omaha Beef on Saturday night.

One big concern from Champions Indoor Football was alleviated on Sunday afternoon when the league released their streaming information. This is negative on a number of fronts for the CIF, the first being it took until 6 days before the regular season began! The second being that they announced they would be back on Eversport but paid for the season......... While each teams first home game will be free you will be paying for each one after that. Why is this upsetting? For many fans there isn't the budget to pay for yet another streaming service, watch parties aren't an option for fans not near their favorite club. The CIF set the bar last season being free on Eversport, the IFL raised the bar moving to YouTube AND being free (and FYI YouTube also has hosted the NBA D-League along with Northwoods League baseball and even Russian Hockey). The CIF, which has much more parity in the league than the IFL had the chance to move to YouTube be free and one up the IFL with action packed football all the way to Champions Bowl III, but they whiffed on the opportunity. 

Yes I promised we have some juiciness on the NAL front and it's something that's been heavily thought on IFW for a long time. That news is the Dayton Wolfpack have officially folded. That's right after how many months of being pushed that the club had a lease at the Nutter Center in Dayton, well it turns out that the owners didn't and the league will be replacing them with a travel only team. This travel team will be called the Wolfpack and based out of Georgia. Will they be called the Dayton Wolfpack? Who knows but this looks bad on the league folding a team with less than a month to go until the season starts. This leaves the league having a total schedule imbalance. Columbus, Georgia, and Jacksonville will all remain playing 12 games. Corpus Christi, High Country, and Monterrey will be playing 11. Lehigh Valley is down to 10 and the Wolfpack will be playing 7. Thats right a completely and totally unbalanced schedule, you know what other eastern league had all these issues? American Indoor Football, that's right before you even kick off your drawing comparison to the AIF and that is not good. To make matters even worse the NAL is already touting that by April they'll name two expansion clubs for 2018! You read it right, the NAL who has folded a team a month before the season, moved them as a travel only team, is playing an unbalanced schedule, and hasn't even played a down yet, is touting expansion for 2018. This definitely sounds like AIF 2.0 at this time, let's just hope the quality of play is better.

Last week the IFL Game of the Week was between the Sioux Falls Storm and Arizona Rattlers, to open up the game both teams would exchange missed field goals before Sioux Falls had Korey Williams finish off a 5 play 29 yard drive with a 3 yard TD run to make it 7-0 Storm. It would be the only lead Sioux Falls held until the fourth quarter as Arizona marched a 6 play 37 yard TD drive that was capped off when Darrell Monroe barreled his way to the endzone from one yard out. Trickery then ensued as Arizona faked the PAT kick and ran it in for 2 points. It would be 8-7 Rattlers early in the 2nd Quarter. On the next drive Chris McAllister recovered a fumble from Sioux Falls' Lorenzo Brown, 2 plays later a completion from Thomas to Washington and a missed PAT made it 14-7 Arizona. Brown would prove on the next drive that the fumble hadn't gotten to him as he would scramble his way out of a sack 36 yards downfield for a TD to tie the game at 14. Arizona matched the TD again capping a 6 play 35 yard drive with a 9 yard TD pass from Thomas to Anthony Amos, more trickery was done and Wolf ran in another 2 point conversion to make it 22-14. Nearing the end of the half Arizona (who would receive the ball to start the second half) would want to make a defensive stop, end the 2nd quarter with a TD and start fast in the 3rd quarter with a TD. The Storm wouldn't let that happen as Robbie Rouse marched his way to the endzone on a 2 yard run that put the game at 22-21. The Sioux Falls defense would hold on Arizona's final 2nd quarter drive and they missed a 59 yard field goal and the half would end 22-21 Arizona.

The Rattlers would start the 3rd quarter with a drive capped of by an 18 yard TD pass from Thomas to Amos with a kick this made the game 29-21. The rest of the game would be a story of defense as Arizona stopped the Storm's drive dead and brought the ball down to the Sioux Falls 19. On that play Rashard Smith picked off Thomas' pass at the back wall of his own end zone and scrambled downfield 58 yards (officially marked as 50) for Pick 6! With the score now 29-28 Arizona pushed down to the Storm 2 when Smith forced a fumble that was recovered by Byron Bennett at the Storm 9. Sioux Falls didn't manage to score and instead was stopped dead on downs again by a tough Arizona defense. The Rattlers who had turnovers on each of the last two drives would try for a TD again but 7 plays and 14 yards later they were stopped on downs. The Storm would get the ball back and finally push themselves into a lead when Mike Tatum took a 7 yard run to the endzone, with the 2 point conversion no good it was 34-29 Storm. The Storm defense would hold Sioux Falls one last time on the night before scoring a game sealing TD, with a kick missed the score was 40-29 Storm and that's how it finished. Arizona dropped their first game in the IFL and Sioux Falls stays perfect at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center. Don't take this the wrong way Arizona played well and I would expect them to be in a July rematch with Sioux Falls for the 2017 United Bowl.

Now for our Game of the Week, this week we have two, one from each the IFL and the CIF. The CIF Game of the Week is well the only one being played and will see the Sioux City Bandits host the arch rival Omaha Beef on Saturday night at 7:05 PM in Sioux City, IA at the Gateway Arena at Tyson Events Center if you can't make it the game will be available on Eversport. The IFL Game of the Week was much harder to pick and with intrigue it will be also this Saturday at 7:05 PM for a inter conference game as the Nebraska Danger host the Wichita Falls Nighthawks from the Eihusen Arena in Grand Island, NE and able to be seen LIVE and FREE on YouTube. 

It's Time! Indoor Football Weekly #11

Credit Our Sports Central

That's right boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, IT IS TIME. The 2017 Indoor Football season starts this weekend! It's been a long and grueling offseason we know, but we get into full swing with 4 regular season games and 2 preseason games this weekend!

And now we'll take another walk down memory lane. Last week we covered 1999 and today it's on to the year 2000. While both the IFL and IPFL survived (the IFL even thrived) in 1999 they would come back, however they weren't alone. A new league called the Xtreme Football League was being set up to take place, primarily in the deep south. That league was bought out by a league known as arenafootball2, better known as the af2 in July of '99. The IPFL would have 7 clubs in 2000, only Mississippi and Idaho returned from '99 though. In the IFL on the other hand all 8 teams returned with a whopping 13 expansion clubs for a 21 team league! The IPFL played a 16 game season and again saw all 7 of it's clubs survive the year. The Mississippi Fire Dogs would take down the Portland Prowlers, in Portland, in the 2000 IPFL Championship game. The IFL however went from playing just 12 games to 14 in 2000. A grueling 4 round, 12 team playoff culminated in IFL Gold Cup 2000, where the hometown Peoria Pirates smacked the Bismarck Blaze 69-42. As of 2017 we actually have some teams still remaining, the Omaha Beef (IPFL now CIF), Sioux Falls Cobras (now Storm in the new IFL), and Sioux City Attack (IPFL now Bandits in the CIF) are all still kicking. Markets that have clubs are as we've covered Green Bay and Dayton along with Wichita, KS. Wichita, who was the Warlords in the IFL, now has the three year old Force who replaced the Wichita Wild.

Credit Indoor Football League

As I said it's time! To cap off the IFL preseason the Wichita Falls Nighthawks put a beat down on the Cap City Bulls (SIF) by a score of 89-12. Before we get started with the games let's go over Banana Cat's IFL Power Rankings prior to week one. At the top we have (of course) the 6 Time Defending United Bowl Champion Sioux Falls Storm, behind them at number two is last years Intense Conference Champion Spokane Shock. The league newcomers, the Arizona Rattlers, are ranked a respectable third place. And to round out the top four is the Wichita Falls Nighthawks. The rest are in said order 5) Green Bay Blizzard, 6) Nebraska Danger, 7)  Iowa Barnstormers, 8) Salt Lake Screaming Eagles, 9) Colorado Crush, and 10) Cedar Rapids Titans. Now about those games, Week 1 opens up at 8PM (CT) when the newest IFL club the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles host the Nebraska Danger on Thursday from the Maverik Center. The action continues Friday night with a pair of 7PM (CT) kickoffs as the Green Bay Blizzard visit the Cedar Rapids Titans in the U.S. Cellular Center and when the biggest game of the season happens as the Arizona Rattlers face off with the Sioux Falls Storm at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center. The weekend closes when the Iowa Barnstormers travel to the Kay Yeager Coliseum to play the Wichita Falls Nighthawks on Saturday at 7PM (CT). All games will be FREE to watch on YouTube, and if you wanna try your hand at pick-em you can do that here as well. Both the Colorado Crush and Spokane Empire have a bye in Week 1.

And on to the CIF, the preseason officially began this past Sunday when the Omaha Beef hosted the Omaha Outlaws at the Ralston Arena. The Beef would slaughter the Outlaws by a final score of 97-18. You can expect more of that this weekend as there are two games on hand. Both games are Saturday February 18th at 7PM (CT), when the Dallas Marshals host the Arlington Longhorns at the Mesquite Arena in Mesquite, TX and the other when the Sioux City Bandits host the First City Cavalry at the Gateway Arena at Tyson Event Center. As of now the CIF still has not yet announced a streaming deal but we'll cover that when it is announced and give you the CIF Power Ranking before Week 1.

And we introduce a new part to the weekly posts, the IFW Game of the Week. Each week (in the regular season) at Indoor Football Weekly, we'll be selecting one game from each league as our IFW Game of the Week. This week's pick in the IFL is a game we've all been waiting for the Arizona Rattlers taking on the Sioux Falls Storm at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls, SD at 7PM on Friday Night. This game is the biggest game in the history of the Indoor Football League as two teams with a combined 15 championships (10 Indoor Titles for Sioux Falls and 5 ArenaBowl Titles for Arizona) who have never played each other before. Kevin Guy who has coached the Rattlers since 2008 will have the biggest coaching battle of his career in for him against Kurtiss Riggs whose in his 15th season as head coach of the Storm. The game has all the making of an instant classic and a possible preview of United Bowl 2017. If you can get to the game I couldn't suggest that option enough, if not you can watch the game live on YouTube.

Indoor Football Weekly #9 Preseason 2017, Part 1: Indoor Football League

Credit: Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Ohhhhhhh yes it's that time again, the preseason is upon us! That's right it's football time once again and the 2017 season is looking like it could be the best in years! We have 3 good leagues this season in the IFL, CIF, and NAL. Without American Indoor Football it looks like 2017 will be clean but who knows in this sport.

Credit: http://www.markthompson.us/gameballs/IPFL/

To start off 2017 is a special year in the sport as it marks the 20th anniversary of the Indoor (not Arena) game being played. That first league was the original Professional Indoor Football League founded and playing only the 1998 Season. 1998 was not a year without it's difficulties as the Minnesota Monsters (coached by Ron Simmons) would fold after just 5 league games, the Texas Bullets would fold after 10 games, and the Utah Catzz forfeited their final game to the Madison Mad Dogs. In the championship game the Louisiana Bayou Beast defeated the Madison Mad Dogs 42-41 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, LA. After 1998 the PIFL folded and splintered into 2 leagues, the IPFL and original IFL but that is a story for another time. There are no clubs remaining from the original PIFL in the 1998 season and only 3 markets still have clubs. Green Bay (the Bombers) now have the Green Bay Blizzard who have played in the Resch Center (not the old Brown County Veterans Memorial Coliseum) since 2003. Belton, TX (Texas Bullets) will have the CenTex Cavalry playing out of their old stomping grounds, the Bell County Expo Center. And finally the Greater Salt Lake area (Utah Catzz in Orem, UT) will also have an expansion team the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles playing at the Maverik Center in West Valley City, UT. This history section will be a recurring feature this year in Indoor Football Weekly.

Now onto the real stuff! Let's start with the first league kicking off the Indoor Football League! The IFL players reported for training camp already and started on January 30th. Now let's start off with some previews.

Intense Conference

The Intense Conference has some familiar clubs returning such as the Nebraska Danger and Colorado Crush along with last years Intense Conference Champion Spokane Empire. They'll be joined by two new clubs the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles and perennial AFL stalwart the Arizona Rattlers. Salt Lake and "Project Fanchise" do NOT look impressive right now and there slotted at #5 in the Intense. On the other hand Colorado finished 2016 in 4th place at 4-12. While they don't look impressive they do look like they will give Nebraska, who is defiantly in a rebuilding phase, a run for their money for third place. And that is where the problem lies, last season with 6 clubs (3 in each conference) making the playoffs the end of the season was exciting! Colorado and the now folded Tri-Cities Fever weren't out until later and Nebraska and the now folded Billings Wolves fought to the end for the First Round home game! This will not be the case as the IFL has gone back to just 4 teams (2 from each conference) making the playoffs.  And THAT fact brings us to our last 2 clubs the Spokane Empire and Arizona Rattlers. Last years Intense Conference Champion Spokane led by longtime Indoor coach Adam Shackleford will be a force to be reckoned with. On the other side Kevin Guy and the Arizona Rattlers will also be a force even as a de facto expansion club. Picks for the IFL Intense Conference has Arizona facing Spokane in the Conference Championship, winner to close to pick at this moment.

United Conference

Unlike the changes in the Intense Conference the United Conference brings back all 5 clubs from 2016. While last season Green Bay and Iowa were in the cellar, Wichita Falls and Cedar Rapids fought until the end for the home playoff game.. That will not happen this season, Cedar Rapids was truly unimpressive this offseason and they look to be in 5th Place. Green Bay has been a young team in development for a while and they don't look to be playoff material don't count them out as they could surprise us. Wichita Falls continues to look well (which is the opposite of their attendance) and Iowa really is looking to have built a playoff capable team after finishing with a franchise worst finish in 2016. But that doesn't matter in the United Conference unless someone knocks out the King, the Sioux Falls Storm. Sioux Falls is looking to dominate again in 2017 and just added 3 years to Kurtiss Riggs so expect some more championships. Pick for IFL United Conference Sioux Falls beats who cares at this point.

Games to Watch

Well there are a few of these this year, and thank god the IFL will now be free on YouTube for the 2017 season. The first game to watch has a good shot at Game of the Year as the Kings of Indoor Football, the 10 time Indoor Champion Sioux Falls Storm, face off against the Kings of Arena Football, the 5 time ArenaBowl Champion and IFL newcomer, the Arizona Rattlers. The game is set for Week 1 on Friday February 17th inside the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls, SD.

The next is the series between Arizona and Spokane, both clubs left the AFL for the IFL in the last two seasons and will be fighting for the Intense Conference Championship. Arizona plays host to Spokane on Saturday April 22nd, while Spokane hosts the games on Friday May 12th and Saturday June 3rd. The final game to watch (at this point) is when a rematch of the 2016 United Bowl when Spokane visits the Sioux Falls Storm on Saturday May 6th in Sioux Falls, SD.

As we wrap things up the Indoor Football League has just two preseason games. One of those is this weekend with the traditional "Home Opener" for the Cedar Rapids Titans as they face the Iowa Barnstormers at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids. The other preseason game will be played on Saturday February 11th when the SIF's travel only Cap City Bulls head to the Kay Yeager Coliseum to take on the Wichita Falls Nighthawks. This is just part one of three as we'll cover both the CIF and NAL closer to their seasons start dates.

Indoor Football Weekly #8 Offseason Edition: December

Credit: Our Sports Central

Well everyone in the two months since our last post there has been another shit storm thats happened in the world of Indoor Football. So sit back relax, strap in, and enjoy the ride because here we go!

Credit: Indoor Football League

As normal we'll start off with the league that's had the least happen since our last visit and that ironically is the Indoor Football League. Last time we covered the folding Billings and the addition of Arizona. Since then the IFL has released there schedule and in the opening week is a game we've all been hoping for. The Sioux Falls Storm will take on the Arizona Rattlers at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls, SD at 7:05PM on Friday, February 17th. We will be doing a game of the week for each league this season and this will be the first IFL Game of the Week! The IFL will still play a 16 game schedule starting Thursday February 16th and ending Saturday June 17th. The playoff format will revert to what is has been most of the past few seasons. The #1 seed will host the #2 seed in the Conference Championship with no 1st round game. I found the United Conference Semi-Final to be a good one last season as both teams were deserving, all this does is set the stage for a guaranteed Sioux Falls hosting. My prediction is Sioux Falls vs ? in the United Conference Championship in Sioux Falls, SD and Arizona vs Spokane. I do believe that there is truly a 3 way race for that second spot in the United Conference but not in the Intense. The Conference Championship will be held June 23rd-25th and the United Bowl July 7-9th.

As we stay in the same area we move on to Champions Indoor Football a somewhat bigger change has happened with the Chicago Eagles suspending operations for the 2017 season. That however is not a huge shock to this girl at all, per the CIF website they didn't report any attendance figures and from the video footage of last season there attendance was almost non existent. The River City Raiders are also having been reported to have left the CIF, the reasoning said was that Chicago folding was to detrimental to keep them in the CIF. Since those changes have happened a new schedule or alignment to the league has not been announced. Once we do receive the information we will update it. As of this afternoon the CIF announced their new schedule and alignment. Rather than the 4 division alignment that was originally announced the league will be split into two 7 team Conferences. The Northern Conference (Bloomington, Bismarck, Kansas City, Omaha, Salina, Sioux City, and West Michigan) and the Southern Conference (Amarillo, CenTex, Dallas, Dodge City, Duke City, Texas, and Wichita) is how the league will align for 2017. The schedule will start out on Saturday February 25th when the Omaha Beef take on the Sioux City Bandits. The season finishes on Saturday June 3rd with 4 games that day. With the new schedule and alignment a playoff announcement was not part of it but when the playoff schedule is announced we will be sure to update it.

A quick update on the Arena Football League is after dropping down to just Four clubs an expansion team (which is still unnamed) for Baltimore, MD was handed to Monumental Sports and Entertainment (owners of the Washington Valor) to add a 5th club to the AFL for 2017.

Credit: National Arena League

To wrap everything up let's finish it with the newest league of them all. That is what was known as the Arena Development League (get to that later) the newest addition at the time of the last post was the Anderson Gladiators, due to apparent lease issues (aka them not having a lease) they left the ADL and joined the SIF. As for new clubs announced since then, the Corpus Christi Rage were announced to play out of the American Bank Center. Also the Florida Tarpons had joined the league on October 20th, and given a nice boost of an older stable team to the league, and bailed then on November 10th for an AIF replacement league Arena Pro Football. The reason why!? Well they didn't want to spend the money the ADL was requiring and had no faith that the league would last multiple seasons, do I blame them? Yes, there just stupid, if they don't have money to play in a real league don't play at all. Finally was the big news on a November Press Conference, the Arena Development League changed it's name (and structure) to the National Arena League while at the same time adding the former AFL club the Jacksonville Sharks. Since coming into the league the Sharks have signed players from last seasons AFL squad and numerous IFL All Stars, I fully expect this to be the team to beat in the (now) NAL. In late November one other club was added, the Mexican team, the Monterrey Steel, where did Northern Kentucky go? Nobody knows but there not here anymore. A few short weeks later the NAL schedule was released, the first game in league history and first NAL Game of the Week is the Columbus Lions vs Jacksonville Sharks. The Sharks will visit "The Jungle" at the Columbus Civic Center to take on last years (yes this doesn't mean much as the league was a joke) AIF Champion Lions. I fully expect this game to set the tone for the league which is playing Arena Style minus the rebound nets. A background on the schedule, Jacksonville will host 8 games, Dayton and Corpus Christi will host 5, the other 5 teams will each host 6 games in a 12 game schedule. After the 12 game, 14 week regular season the NAL will have the top 4 teams qualify for it's playoffs. June 23-25 is Semi-Final Weekend while the NAL Championship Game will be played on the weekend of July 7-9.

The NAL really made some standout moves this month, with changing there name and adding Jacksonville, I can't wait to see how the league gets played out. On the other hand the CIF should already have an updated schedule released or at least say what's happening to the teams. The IFL made a very stupid move, after expanding the Playoffs last season, which made it enjoyable for us at IFW for once contracted it back to 4 teams with 3 seeds practically locked in. Until next time that's the news and all we have time for, we'll be back with one, maybe two more offseason posts before the season starts. So long folks!